#NoG20 From Across The World Together Against The G20

No G20 activists wrote an open letter to the people of Hamburg. “Do not be afraid, because we come as friends”, says Patrick Bond, economist and activist from South Africa, when he talks about coming to Hamburg to protest against the G20 summit. “We want to take away the fears of us, which are fueled by politics”. In the letter co-written by him to Hamburg’s civil society it says: “The true invaders and destroyers of our cities are the G20 and we must protect ourselves together. If they want a democracy-free zone in Hamburg, we want a G20-free Hamburg.”

Submitted to Enough is Enough

Download, print, read and spread From across the world together against the G20: an open letter to the people of Hamburg in PDF Format: Open_Letter_G20

Note: Enough is Enough is not organizing any of these events, we are publishing this text for people across the US and Europe to be able to see what is going on and for documentation only.

Already for months people from countries like Argentina, France and Ireland plan their journey to Hamburg. The International No G20 coordinating groups clarifies that they want to protest in July in solidarity with the people living in Hamburg: with respect for their neighborhoods and the inspiring activities within them, that emanates solidarity and freedom. Bettina Müller from Attac Argentina says: “I am looking forward to Hamburg and its people and hope that one gets to know each other during the protests”.

The International No G20 group is part of the global preparation of protests against the G20 summit in Hamburg and is composed of different groups from Europe and the world. This includes for example Attac Argentina, the network “BRICS from below”, social centers from Italy, left groups from Eastern Europe and human rights groups. The protest plans include a congress, blockades, actions of mass civil disobedience and a big demonstration.

From across the world together against the G20: an open letter to the people of Hamburg

Dear people of Hamburg, you might wonder who is writing to you.We are women and men from all over Europe and the world, citizens oractivists in many different networks, and from all walks of life. We havevery different ages and political persuasions.

We’re the people who aim to join you in Hamburg, your city, to support theprotests this July when the leaders of the world’s 20 most powerfulcountries will meet in the very heart of the city.

You have mostly heard about us from politicians and media who want tomake you afraid of us, describing us as “troublemakers” or “vandals”…However, with this letter to you we want to join hands with you since weare all subjected to the same global policies created at these summits,where the few think they can decide for all of our lives.

You are subjected to red, yellow and blue zones. You’ve seen controlstations, police forces and machinery in your city before, as at the OSCEsummit, and you will see even more soon. We can imagine how you feel,when your freedom of living, movement and assembly and those of yourfriends, neighbours and colleagues are suspended – even if onlytemporarily.

We also know this from our own worlds. In recent months, we’ve beenhitting the roads of the US, raising up a million voices and marching in thegrowing resistance to Trump, asserting racial, social and gender justiceagainst the racist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, xenophobic, climatedenialist,corporate-controlled United States he is building. We know thatmany of you are also fighting the Right, against the AfD or autocraticrulers such as Erdogan, and that many of you share our opposition to theconstant warfare exported around the world.

Often our rights to assemble – like yours – are violated in these struggles.We have fought for years to defend our planet from the threats posed byclimate change and ecological crisis, from the expropriation anddevastation, from the multinationals’ resource extraction and exploitationof the lands where we live. Some of us were in North Dakota to put ourbodies in front of the Access Pipeline. Some of us have opposed the longlastingviolence against the Amazon rainforest – as you have foughtMoorburg or against useless, expensive mega-projects like the Olympics orfought to re-communalize water and energy.

Others of us have protested against undemocratic, corrupt regimes inBrazil (35 million on general strike against Temer’s austerity this April),Russia (100 cities staged anti-corruption protests against Prime MinisterMedvedev’s corruption), India (180 million workers fought Modi’sneoliberalism one day last September), China (with more than 100,000protests each year), and South Africa (regular mass and micro protestsagainst Zuma’s neoliberal plutocracy) – showing from below that BRICSelites are no better than the other G20 rulers.

Last year many of us met on the streets in Paris, against the elites whothreaten our very lives by continuously reinforcing precarious labour andliving conditions. The Loi Travail was a dramatic turning point for thisprocess in Europe, but we also know how it feels to work at so-called minijobs,as millions of young people do in Germany – and we experienced howthese struggles feel – for young and old – in times of a “state ofemergency”. But we know this is a struggle for survival and solidarity. Andyou – like people everywhere – showed this by welcoming fellow citizens ofthe earth fleeing war, hunger and devastation, when you opened yourhomes and city for those in need. It is obvious; Merkel’s dirty EU-Turkeydeal against refugees represents neither you nor us.

However, we often meet bitter opposition to our rights to struggle, toassemble, to protest – from the police or the State. The governments ofHamburg, Germany and other powerful G20 states would like to silenceand remove us from the public scene, so that they don’t have to hear thatwe are many and that we are loud, and that they don’t represent us –neither in Africa, Europe, the Americas or elsewhere in the world.

The choices that the “powerful Twenty” will discuss and propose inHamburg in July are the same policies turning our cities into playgroundsfor high-profit real estate and financial speculation; making rentsunaffordable and raising the cost of living; pushing ordinary people out ofurban centres; making our neighbourhoods uninhabitable; privatizingpublic services and common goods; and other policies making lifeincreasingly difficult for the great majority.

They are the real invaders and destroyers of our cities. We mustdefend and protect ourselves from them together!

So we ask you to open your city to us, not to be scared but to welcome uswhen we come to raise our collective voice for social equality, freedomand democracy. They want capitalism without democracy: we wantdemocracy without capitalism. This is what we already demanded inFrankfurt, at the European Central Bank opening. We learned there thatwhere the “powerful Twenty” are, and where capitalism and violence are,there can be no democracy.

When Trump, Erdogan, Putin, Temer, Modi, Zuma, Macri, Xi, May, PeñaNieto, King Salman, Merkel and the other crooks and tyrants meet,planning their next moves to exploit our lives and our territories, we muststand up to block them.

If they want a democracy-free zone in Hamburg, we want a G20-freeHamburg instead.

In solidarity with you, people of Hamburg, we will come together in July toshow that there is another world, an alternative one to theirs. We willcarefully respect the city and its activities, because we are reallyhappy to come to Hamburg and visit your neighbourhoods withsuch lively, diverse cultures, with such a strong sense of freedomand solidarity, with such an important history of struggles forsocial, environmental, economic and civil rights for everyone. Andwe hope that we will join and come to know each other in the streets!We are many, we are loud and we will be in Hamburg with all of you – toshow the entire world and become the alternatives to today’s misery.

per shoqerine.jpg During the last months of the passing year, a rather important event has unfolded in my home-country of Albania. This event is none other than the student strike launched against the legislation passed by the Rama government with regard to third-degree education. This law aims to introduce a complete restructuring of the prevailing […]

Morales statement.jpg Prison journalist Jason Walker reports on the continuing practice by guards of staging “gladiator fights” between rival groups of prisoners. Prisoners such as me pose a threat to their torture program, so I’m asking that readers keep an eye on the day-to-day practices of this prison and demand that an oversight committee investigate […]

viewfromhere.jpg What follows is a brief and rather belated update on the East Hamilton Rent Strike, a seven-month campaign waged by tenants of the Stoney Creek Towers against their landlord, InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust and property manager, CLV Group. Stoney Creek Towers tenants are angrier than ever before about landlord harassment, disrepairs, and rent […]

ohinemutu.jpg A member of Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) attended a candlelight vigil for victims of the mass shooting in Christchurch. The proceedings took place in an appropriate atmosphere of both solemnity and grieving for the dead and injured, though this was marred at times by an unreflective ‘Little Kiwi’ nationalistic exceptionalism. AWSM read more

The post Reparations As A Verb appeared first on It's Going Down. A critical piece from the Black Autonomy Network that addresses the issue of talk of reparations as a tool of recuperation. What does it mean when Elizabeth Warren gets on national television and talks of reparations as a way that “…we can as […]

The post Call For a Week of Action Against Symbols of White Supremacy: May 12-18th appeared first on It's Going Down. Call from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak and endorsed by the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement for a week of action against the symbols of white supremacy. The prison system and every police department are two sides of […]

The post Trump & Bolsonaro: Call to Defeat NeoFascism appeared first on It's Going Down. Statement on the recent meeting between Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, the context of the meeting, and the need for mass mobilization against growing fascism. From Federação das Organizações Sindicalistas Revolucionárias do Brasil and the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement. […]

The post From Antiglobe to Antifa: A Recent History of Anarchist Struggle in NYC appeared first on It's Going Down. Some NYC anarchists have put together From Antiglobe to Antifa: A Recent History of Anarchist Struggle in NYC. It chronicles the past 10 years of anarchist struggle in NYC through three waves: Occupy, Black Lives […]

The post Spencer Sunshine on the Implications of the Christchurch Massacre appeared first on It's Going Down. On March 15th, we witnessed the horrific and brutal massacre of 50 people and the violent injuring of 50 more in New Zealand at two mosques. This comes months after the Pittsburgh massacre and the discovery of numerous […]

The post Anarres Infoshop, Portland, OR: Call for New Volunteers appeared first on It's Going Down. Anarres Infoshop, a Portland-area, collectively-run anarchist infoshop which operated 2014-2018 in North Portland, was forced to close due to lack of ability to afford rising rent and utility costs. However, fortunately the collective has rallied due to extensive and […]

The post Disturbance at Covington County Jail, Alabama appeared first on It's Going Down. Report from Perilous on recent prisoner disturbance in Alabama at a county jail. During a transfer of three prisoners, a group of “unruly” prisoners engaged in what the sheriff’s department called a “riot”—although they did not specify what that entailed. According […]

The post Help Build A New Resistance Camp on Wet’suwet’en Territory! appeared first on It's Going Down. The following is a call from the Wet-suwet’en nation to participate a new resistance camp in the Spring. For more info, go here. Likhts’amisyu Spring Construction Camp APRIL 28, 2019 – MAY 18, 2019 The Likhts’amisyu Clan, one […]

The post Round Table on #AbolishICE: Blockade, Commune, Defend appeared first on It's Going Down. In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we sat down with participants of the Abolish ICE movement from across the US, including people in Tacoma, WA, Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA. While each of the […]

The post Milwaukee, WI: Banners Dropped Against New Youth Jail appeared first on It's Going Down. The following report and photo was anonymously sent to It’s Going Down. Last week in Milwaukee, we received word of an emergency meeting re: Act 185, a law to expand the juvenile justice system, in particular, through the mandated […]

The revolution won't be tweeted... From toxic "social justice" crusades to internal sabotage, "internet leftism" is destroying itself and fueling the far-right. In this episode, Alley Valkyrie & Rhyd Wildermuth discuss the mechanisms of these problems and their roots in our alienation from ourselves and each other, and propose solutions to help the Left remember […]

What's the relationship between anarchism and art? How do we create the kind of world we want to see? And how we learn to believe that we are "good enough?" In this episode, Alley and Rhyd talk with guest Margaret Killjoy and share stories of how they became who they are.

While many people have begun to use Globalization and Globalism inter-changeably, they are absolutely not the same thing. In this episode, Alley & Rhyd discuss the damage done by global Capital, the history of Globalization, the anti-semitic conspiracy theories of Globalism, and the solution: Internationalism.

"I have met my own people, and I hate them all." --Claudia, from Interview With The Vampire In this episode, Alley and Rhyd discuss their own journeys into Paganism and witchcraft and how they differed radically from the "business" of Paganism and witchcraft in America.

Alley and Rhyd discuss the problems of nationalism and explore the important differences between indigenous and colonized people's struggles for national independence and the far right and white nationalist struggles, and the role of global capitalism in the destruction of cultural differences.

What’s an Egregore? What’s an egregore got to do with America? And what really happened to the dude who made KONY2012? In the sixth episode Alley Valkyrie and Rhyd Wildermuth discuss how the ingredients of the ritual that manifested American make it impossible to change, and discuss how an egregoric understanding can inform resistance and […]

Why is being a "witch" suddenly popular? What does the rise of the witch identity mean for actual witches? Why our capitalists trying to sell us stuff? And what are the dangers of this trend? In Episode 4: The Witch, Alley Valkyrie and Rhyd Wildermuth look at the questions (and try to keep their focus […]

In this episode, Alley Valkyrie & Rhyd Wildermuth discuss this current crisis of Capitalism, how Trump and other opportunists exploit this crisis (and are much smarter than you think), and how all of this has created the material conditions for civil unrest, fascism, and its socialist opposition.

The Likhts’amisyu Clan, one of the five clans of the Wet'suwet'enNation, will soon be asserting their sovereignty by creating a new,permanent land reclamation on their territory. In doing so, they arerequesting support with their upcoming Spring Construction Camp,scheduled to begin on April 28th, 2019. Read More ...

Today our neighbours at 103 and 105 West Lodge occupied the head offices of Timbercreek Asset Management. Joined by Parkdale teachers whose students live at the buildings, tenants delivered more than 150 work orders detailing disrepair in units. Today West Lodge tenants put Timbercreek on notice: we will not be pushed out of our homes […]

What follows is a brief and rather belated update on the East Hamilton Rent Strike, a seven-month campaign waged by tenants of the Stoney Creek Towers against their landlord, InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust and property manager, CLV Group. To those who’ve been wondering what was going on, or who have asked us for updates […]

First of all, thank you. Thank you for giving a shit. For deciding that there are futures worth fighting for, even when the future being imposed on us looks increasingly bleak. The good news is that you are here, with your body, along with so many others around the world. Today we have a chance […]

We’re asking ourselves if we want to go to the March 15th climate demo. We tried to go to a reformist demo for the planet a couple months ago. It felt like crap. We’ve been in demos before where we weren’t feeling it, where we didn’t feel in our place (like in a union demo). […]

Received on 19/11/2018: The second issue of Paper Chained has been published online. This is a journal that supports publication of writings and artistic expressions from people affected by incarceration. Click here to download the PDF, and visit the blog of Running Wild here to read more. […]

Received on 16/11/2018: A banner tied in Yogyakarta, reading: “SOLIDARITY WITH ALL ANARCHIST AND ANTI-FASCIST IN RUSSIA, LONG LIVE ANARCHY! MIKHAIL”. Anarchists and Anti-Fascists in Russia have faced a wave of repression from the State following an action carried out by a 17-year-old young anarchist named Mikhail Zhlobitsky who blew himself up at the Arkhangelsk […]

Received on 10/11/2018; for the case of Mikhail Zhlobitsky check here and here:Narrm / Melbourne so-called Australia: Graffiti mural in memory of 17 year old Russian Anarchist-Communist Mikhail Zhlobitsky who died while carrying out an explosive attack against the FSB (Federal Security Service) Regional Headquarters in Arkhangelsk, Russia on October 31st. “Never Forget Our Fallen […]

sent 11/1/18 They are facing potential incarceration for helping migrants in danger in the French Alps. Bastien, Benoit, Eléonora, Juan, Lisa, Mathieu et Théo will face justice on November 8th in Gap. They are prosecuted for «helping undocument foreign nationals to enter national territory, in organized gang”. The envisaged […]

Last weekend in San Francisco, my friends and I with Diablo Rising Tide hosted two friends from Germany on the “Scale Resistance” tour that Rising Tide has organized with radical climate group Ende Galaende. The talk left me thinking a lot about resistance (the real kind, not the stuff being sold by Chuck Schumer, Nancy […]

Extinction Rebellion was established in the United Kingdom in October 2018 as a movement that aims to use tactics of nonviolent direct action in order to avert the effects of climate change. The post Why Extinction Rebellion can’t save the world appeared first on Infoshop News.

Weeks ago, when the first accusations of anti-semitism were being leveled against Representative Ilhan Omar, I was deeply agitated. The post Criticizing Israel isn’t Anti-Semitic, Here’s What Is appeared first on Infoshop News.

The recent rise in visible Anti Semitism – vandalism of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, shooting and murder in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, the fascist slogans pointing to Jews as the enemy – shows that the ground of security is once again cracking. The post Recent Rise of Visible Anti-Semitism appeared first on Infoshop News.